Combining embroidery and painting to create emotional narratives, Roebuck often reflects on her own childhood to convey stories of her experiences and that of her family’s.
Roebuck’s process itself is symbolic to the re-awakening of memory. Through the repetition of sewing - pushing and pulling needles, nails or awls through material - she considers the painful process in reliving trauma. Symbolizing the stages of struggle in the path to healing, Roebuck uses layers and shapes that fade the figure into camouflage, which acts as patterns of protection. The resulting images show the duality of pain and triumph, exclusion and acceptance.
Josie Love Roebuck (b. 1995) is an interdisciplinary artist from Chattanooga, TN. Her process addresses the contemporary complexity of identifying as biracial through symbolizing pain and triumph, exclusion, and acceptance.
Roebuck is currently teaching at the University of Cincinnati where she received her M.F.A (2021). She received her B.F.A with an emphasis in drawing and painting, from the University of Georgia (2019). Roebuck has exhibited at NADA House, NY with LatchKey Gallery, Denny Dimin Gallery, NY, Christie's at Rockefeller Plaza in collaboration with 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair.
Exhibitions include, Kunstheille Krems Art Museum, Austria (2022) and Akron Art Museum, (2021). Her work is part of numerous private and public collections most notably, A. Boafo, Accra, Ghana, T. El Glaoui, London, UK, Jimenez-Colón Collection, San Juan, Puerto Rico Beth Rudin DeWoody, Florida, A. Shariat, Vienna, Austria, C. Shen, Brooklyn, NY and Espacio Tacuarí, Buenos Aires, Argentina.